Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder: Gateway to Suicide

Dangling lifelessly in the locker room of a YMCA in central Iowa, Norman Bowker's life tragically ended. Tim O'Brien tells the story of Norman Bowker in the chapter "Speaking of Courage" of his book The Things They Carried (137-154). Once Bowker came back from the war, he spent his days alone circling a lake in his father's Chevy. After a while, he would head down to the A&W to order a burger and fries hoping to find a friend, or just someone to talk to. Bowker had flashbacks of the war, recalling how he let Kiowa go, swearing that he was still alive. Midnight sweats haunted Bowker as well, making it impossible to attain a good night's rest. All of this contributed to the terrible event that took place in the locker room of the YMCA.

Although this happened to a fictional Vietnam veteran, returning soldiers from today's wars are suffering from similar stories. Soldiers coming back from the Iraq/Afghanistan war often have a serious mental illness caused by the stress of serving in the armed forces. The illness is called Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD) and can lead to serious consequences. In a recent study by the Army, 21.4 percent of lower-ranking enlisted male soldiers showed symptoms of PTSD (Entous). Throughout O'Brien's book, the soldiers had ways to cope with the stress; however, like Norman Bowker, not all could fully live with the ghosts of the war. Suicide caused by PTSD is a terrible end and is all too prevalent throughout veterans.

In most cases of suicide from PTSD, the soldier feels like there is no reason to live. An article by Andrew Buncombe and Oliver Duff published in The Independent tells a story about an incident that led to suicide. Thirty-five-year-old army reservist Douglas Barber had been back from Iraq for two years, but he was still having memories of the terrible experiences. He was a member of the 1485th Transportation Company of the Ohio National Guard and was called up for active duty in February of 2003....

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...PostTraumaticStressDisorder
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Diagnosing an individual with PTSD is not a simple process. The trauma experienced must be approved by a doctor to be considered a life threatening occurrence. Many physicians have such difficulty in diagnosing patients with this disorder. Since talking about the trauma may induce painful emotions many patients often refrain from talking about the event. When someone is unwilling to discuss their traumatic event, this is difficult...

...After experiencing a traumatic event, the mind has been known to horde away the details and memories and then send them back at unexpected times and places, sometimes after years have passed. It does so in a haunting way that makes the recall just as disturbing as the original event. It is easy to understand how PostTraumaticStressDisorder (PTSD) can affect a person’s life. For example: Edgar Allen Poe’s Gothic style of writing about the darker side of romantic imagination, the supernatural, and death were clearly a result of PTSD. PTSD is the name for the acquired mental condition that follows a psychologically distressing event "outside the range of usual human experience" (Bower, 1997). There are five diagnostic criteria for this disorder and there are no cures for this affliction, only therapies which lessen the burden of the symptoms. The root of the disorder is a traumatic event which implants itself so firmly in the mind that the person may be shackled by the pain and distress of the event indefinitely, experiencing it again and again as the mind stays connected with the past rather than the present, making it difficult to think of the future.
The research on this topic is all rather recent as the disorder was only added to the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders (DSM-III) in the last twenty years....

...Post-traumaticStressDisorder:
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Post-TraumaticStressDisorder:
The Dark Reality
Post-TraumaticStressDisorder (PTSD) is sweeping through the lives of people like an epidemic. It is a very dangerous illness that has extremely negative effects, but sometimes goes untreated because of the ignorance of certain individuals. Some believe it is a “made-up” illness and is not a reality, but it is a reality, a dark reality that impacts the lives of many and even devastates communities and families.
Post-TraumaticStressDisorder is a mental illness. According to the Mayo Clinic (2006), “Post-traumaticstressdisorder (PTSD) is a mental health condition that's triggered by a terrifying event. Symptoms may include flashbacks, nightmares and severe anxiety, as well as uncontrollable thoughts about the event.” This is how doctors describe PTSD. The DSM-IV-TR (2000), which is the guidebook to diagnosing mental illnesses, describes the criterion for PTSD. The DSM-IV-TR (2000) has three criterion and descriptions of each. The DSM-IV-TR (2000) states the first criterion as the following:
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...
Post-TraumaticStressDisorderPost-traumaticstressdisorder is a psychological reaction to experiencing or witnessing a significantly stressful, traumatic, or shocking event. Did you know that one in three returning troops are being diagnosed with Post-traumaticstressdisorder and less than 40% will seek help (PTSD Foundation of America). When people think of PTSD they automatically assume it just has to do with war veterans. But what people don't know is that children and teens all over the United States are diagnosed with PTSD every day. Of all the children and teens who have gone through or witnessed a traumatic event, 3-15% of girls and 1-6% of boys will develop PTSD (U.S. Department of Veteran Affairs). Adults that aren't veterans of a foreign war can also develop PTSD after witnessing a traumatic event or natural disaster. An estimated 1 out of 10 women develop PTSD and women are about twice as likely to develop it than men (PTSD Statistics). I believe that people usually relate Post-traumaticstressdisorder to just veterans of war but anyone can be affected by it at any age and their symptoms can vary depending on how severe the event is.
Veterans of foreign wars are not the only people affected...

...Prognosis ..6
Summary ..7
There are hundreds of different kinds of psychiatric disorders listed in the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders, 4th ed. (DSM-IV). One of them is called Post-traumaticstressdisorder (PTSD). Based on the research, post-traumaticdisorder usually occurs following the experience or witnessing of life-threatening events such as military combat, natural disasters, terrorist incidents, serious accidents, or violent personal assaults like rape (Harvard Women's Health Watch, 2005). The purpose of this paper is to discuss the risk factors, pathophysiology, clinical manifestation, diagnostic criteria and tests, treatment, prognosis and future research and approaches to treat this psychiatric illness of post-traumaticstressdisorder.
Risk Factors
As to all other kinds of disorders, determining the risk factors is a major influential aspect of a person's life in exposing herself to such diseases and illnesses. The factors that put people at risk for post-traumaticdisorder are having a history of physical, emotional and sexual abuse. In addition to that, people who have been abused as children or who have had other...

...PostTraumaticStressDisorder
Period 4
What is PTSD?
●
Develops after a person experiences or witnesses a
traumatic/terrifying event
●
Causes intense fear, helplessness or horror
●
Family members can also develop
What are its symptoms/effects?
●
anxiety
●
excessive alcohol use
●
combat related nightmares
●
anger
●
depression
●
poor responsiveness
PTSD In The Vietnam
War
●
●
●
In 1980 National Vietnam Veterans Readjustment Study
Helped U.S. government to understand the
development of PTSD in the Vietnam War
Used to be called Post Vietnam Syndrome
Results Of The Study
●
●
●
Among the veterans, approx. 15% of men and 9% of
women were found to have PTSD
30% of men and 27% of women had PTSD at in their
life following Vietnam
A decade after the war, for many veterans, their PTSD
became a chronic condition
Post Vietnam Syndrome
●
●
●
●
Up until the 1980s the disorder wasn’t referred to as
PTSD
The disorder was published in the DSM-III under anxiety
disorders
The DSM was a manual for the criteria for different
disorders
The syndrome had several different types of effects on
the soldiers
Treatment for PTSD
●
Trauma-focused cognitive-behavioral therapy: Carefully
exposing yourself to your thoughts and feelings
●
Family Therapy: Affects everyone so family therapy can be
productive
●...

...Post-TraumaticStressDisorder
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...Following a traumatic event, the mind sometimes stores and hides away the details and memories of the event and then sends them back at unexpected times and places, sometimes years later. It does so in a way that makes the recall just as disturbing as the original event and sometimes more. PostTraumaticStressDisorder is the name for the mental condition acquired following a psychologically distressing event outside normal human experience. There are five things that determine that someone has this disorder and there are no cures for this disorder, only therapy which lessens the burden of the symptoms. The root of the disorder is a traumatic event which places itself so firmly in the mind that the person may be attached by the pain and distress of the event indefinitely, experiencing it again and again as the mind stays in the past rather than the present.
The disorder is quite common, damaging the lives of approximately 8% of the American population (5% of men and 10% of women). Any person is a potential candidate for developing PostTraumaticStressDisorder if subject to enough stress. There is no definite way to determine who will get PostTraumaticStressDisorder. Even though all people who...